How do you encourage public
policy-makers to integrate behaviour into their thinking? Well one piece of the
government’s answer is a simple mnemonic: ‘MINDSPACE’
This has been around a
while, but has popped up a few times in conversation lately so we wanted to
share it:
Messenger: we are
heavily influenced by who communicates information
Incentives: our
responses to incentives are shaped by predictable mental shortcuts such as
strongly avoiding losses
Norms: we are
strongly influenced by what others do
Defaults: we 'go
with the flow' of pre-set options
Salience: our
attention is drawn to what is novel and seems relevant to us
Priming: our
acts are often influenced by sub-conscious cues
Affect: our
emotional associations can powerfully shape our actions
Commitments: we seek
to be consistent with our public promises, and reciprocate acts
Ego: we act in ways
that make us feel better about ourselves
Now of course the full
report recognises that the challenge is much greater than knowing about these
biases in a general sense. Policy-makers must develop methodical, creative and
measurable applications for them.
Check out the full report here.
It includes some great nuggets across a range of policy areas – from obesity to
crime prevention.
